Dallas Cowboys Q&A with Scott Crisp + Texans players to watch

Today’s Cowboys Q&A is with Scott Crisp of the Blue Star Blog. He is also a standup comic, which seems unnecessary when you also write about the Cowboys as that franchise’s actions tend to write their own jokes. (You know, “Glory Hole,” “Special Sauce,” everything Jerry Jones related).

I like funny people and supporting people who do comedy in front of other humans, as that can’t be easy. I asked Scott what comedy stuff he has coming up, and his answer?

“I’ve got a show coming up on September 5 or 7 with Shane Torres, a hilarious Ft. Worthian (Ft. Worthite?) who lives in Portland now. That’s at the Four-Day Weekend Theatre in Downtown Ft. Worth (I’ll tweet the date once it’s concrete). Then I’m on a show September 12 at the Dallas Comedy House with (among others) Clint Werth, the Dallas Observer’s Best Comic in Dallas 2012.

So hopefully, there are a lot of Houstonians who are into comedy and making long drives to watch comedy.”

You can follow Scott at his Twitter account @Scott_M_Crisp where he doesn’t talk about the Cowboys much.

Q&A with Scott Crisp:

What is new/different about this Cowboys team versus past ones (if any)?

“Probably the biggest change is the shift in defense, from Rob Ryan’s 3-4 to Monte Kiffin’s 4-3 and, at the very least, it should be fun to watch DeMarcus Ware put his hand on the ground and pin his ears back, as they say. If he stays healthy, he should record between 70-80 sacks this year.

OK, that might be an overstatement, but only by a little bit.

Also, looking forward to seeing someone not called Jason Garrett calling plays. If they gave out a Nobel Prize in the field of abandoning the run for no good reason, Garrett would have a pile of them in his basement. And let’s not forget his love of, with a first and ten, throwing two screens in a row for a net loss of like nine yards. Then, with a 3rd-and-19, he’d run a draw and make up three of those yards.

Watching Garrett call plays these last few years, I couldn’t help but think of that part in “Varsity Blues” where Bud Kilmer tells Jon Moxon, “You’re the dumbest smart kid I know.””

What do you think are the strengths of this Cowboys team?

“The receiving corps jumps to mind. Miles Austin is healthy at the moment (knock on wood), Dez Bryant is a beast and coming off his first quiet offseason since coming into the league and Old Man Witten (I say this with love) is coming off a historically prolific year. Add to that that DeMarco Murray is becoming a legit receiving threat out of the backfield and Romo shouldn’t have any shortage of options.

If Sean Lee and Bruce Carter can stay healthy, the linebacking corps could also become a serious strength.”

And the weaknesses?

“The age of the Cowboys’ defensive line is really starting to show, and Jerry and co. opted against addressing that in the draft. Jay Ratliff was just sent to the PUP list and will miss the first six games if not more, Tyrone Crawford is done for the year and Anthony Spencer will be out until maybe a week before the regular season opener, leaving guys like Nick Hayden, George Selvie and Ben Bass to do a lot of heavy lifting–no offense to those guys, but there’s not much hope for a trip to the Hawaii there. Ware is still there on the end, so that’s a plus, and Rod Marinelli might be the best d-line coach in the game, but the group is facing some very real depth concerns.”

Should Cowboys fans be panicking in the streets?

“Yes. Not because there’s more reason to panic this year than in the past few years–there’s less–but because Cowboys fans really seem to enjoy panicking in the streets.”

Is there anything at all that matters in this game except for players staying healthy?

With 75 players left on the roster, few of the key starters will playing, but some starters will just because you need enough players to field a team. Just to give you a sense of the things that each team is working on improving, here are last year’s stats:

Interestingly, the Cowboys fired their special teams coach after ending up the year 15th. As you may know, the Texans infamously did not and just added an assistant special teams coach in the off-season.

What was so bad with the the Cowboys’ special teams last year? According to Football Outsiders, the Cowboys kickoff returns were dead last in the league. Given that the Texans kickoffs were the worst in the NFL, I guess something has to give.

Things to watch in the final preseason game.

I don’t like when folks call the preseason “fake football.” Yes, the games don’t count, but the injuries and the risks taken in these games are real, and for a few of the players, the outcomes can be life altering.

Gary Kubiak on Tuesday noted how many players typically are on the bubble for the team:

“Yeah, that’s tough. We’re obviously going to play all of our young players in the course of the game. For me to sit here and try to narrow that down, what the big decisions are to make, but I told the guys after practice, there’s usually eight-to-10 guys that make the football team on this game. It’s interesting because it’s very close. They go out there and they’re going to get to play a ton of snaps, and they’ll separate themselves. They’ll show you. Looking forward to getting them involved. A great environment, very competitive environment on the road and see how they respond. Hopefully, it lets us make some of these final decisions we have to make.”

In the game against the Saints, GM Rick Smith mention roughly five players being on the bubble.

Quarterbacks. As my historical Kubiak roster assessment shows, the Texans in recent years have gone into Week 1 with three quarterbacks on the roster instead of two, like in Kubiak’s earlier years. Last year, the 3rd quarterback in John Beck was a luxury after injuries increased, and he was released. That was easier to do given that Case Keenum was on the practice squad.

In the game against the Cowboys, Keenum is expected to start with T.J. Yates getting the second half reps. So far in the preseason, all the quarterbacks have acquitted themselves well. The Texans in the preseason lead the league by far in total yards, passing yards and are tied at the top of the league in time of possession. Yes, it is the preseason, and you’d like to see more scoring, but if you are complaining too much about the preseason Texans offensive performance then you are Veruca Salt-type spoiled.

I don’t think the 4th game will be meaningful as it relates to who is 2nd or 3rd quarterback other than if someone gets hurt, which is quite possible given different offensive line combinations and defensive players trying to make a team.

Given that the Texans have uncertainty at both bottom of the roster running back and wide receiver, I expect them to run their entire offense to check out both.

Deji Karim will likely be the Texans’ third running back. (Brett Coomer/Chronicle)

Running Back. As Deji Karim isn’t practice squad eligible, and the rest of the backs who will be playing this game are, I expect him to get the 3rd running back spot. Kubiak likes experience at that spot until he trusts rookies to do protect the quarterback, and he has praised Karim’s blitz pickup. Karim also has return experience.

I still feel like Cierre Wood is the running back the Texans stash on the practice squad. Why? More typical Texans size than other RB practice squad candidates. Kubiak has praised his smarts, rushing talent, ability to catch. Looked decent running in limited minutes, but Kubiak criticized his consistency with special teams and protecting the quarterback. How does that translate to me? Exactly the type of player the Texans would like to develop more.

Wide Receiver. Will be interesting to see what DeVier Posey looks like in a game situation post injury, assuming they play him some like they said they were going to. Coming back from an achilles injury as a wide receiver is an amazing story, and something that Kobe Bryant fans likely will find encouraging.

End of the roster wide receivers should be getting much more targets this game. With injuries to Alan Bonner and Alec Lemon, the few remaining wide receivers available will be making their case to be practice squaded to the Texans or some other team.

Safety/Outside Linebacker. Both of these positions are ones of concern, or at a minimum, question marks for the Texans. Inexperienced players are going to need to be relied upon for starter snaps.

The team is trying to develop D.J. Swearinger as fast as they can by giving him plenty of preseason team reps. He’s had 126 preseason snaps. The second most out of defensive players? OLB Willie Jefferson with 85.

Safety is a hard position for a rookie to shine in because secondary players’ mistakes tend to be apparent to the world. It is not a surprise that most defensive rookies of the year are linebackers. Linebacker is an easy position to get big numbers, and mistakes tend to be hidden. The last secondary player to win DPOY was Charles Woodson in 1998, and the last safety to do it was Mark Carrier back in 1990.

Not sure how much we can learn from safety/OLB play against mostly backups, but hopefully with the short period of time between the 3rd game and the 4th, the backup defense has learned how to sniff out a screen.

Though there are not too many plans organized for Dallas because it is the 4th preseason game on a Thursday night, please “Like” the Traveling Texans Facebook group if you are planning on future trips. I will be posting details on the blog too when the plans are finalized for those people who have little patience with Facebook.